Gates snaps up jet shares before they head for skies

HE SAYS having his own plane is his one ‘ guilty pleasure’ in life. But billionaire Bill Gates also likes to splash his cash on shares in private jet companies.

Last week, the Microsoft founder ploughed more of his fortune into Londonlisted Signature Aviation, which offers refuelling and other services for private air travel.

Gates first invested in the FTSE 250 company – which used to be called BBA Aviation – in 2009 after the company was hit by the global financial crisis. He later became the largest shareholder.

Last week, he used Signature’s most recent share price slump – triggered by the coronavirus crisis which has severely curbed air travel – to snap up shares on the cheap.

Gates twice raised his shareholding in the company and he now owns a stake of more than 17 per cent, worth £350 million.

It is the first time Gates, who o wns t he s har e s through his Cascade Investments vehicle and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has raised his stake in more than two years.

At four-year lows, Signature’s shares have already started to recover.

Gates clearly believes it won’t be long before they really take off again.

■ BRITAIN’ S housing market will get a health check t his week when builder Bellway gives an update on trading for the 12 months to July.

It has been two months since the company last updated investors, and they will be keen to see if the housebuilder has grown its order book since then. At the time, orders stood at £1.5 billion, which is slightly behind 2019’s figure.

Analysts believe it should have grown in the weeks since the June update.

However, they also think that problems for the housing market could arise in the autumn when t he Government’s furlough scheme starts to be unwound.

■ IT ONLY entered the FT SE 100 in June, but already the cyber security company Avast looks like a stalwart of the blue-chip index given the carnage of recent months.

The Czech-based company’ s shares have surged, giving it a market valuation of more than £6 billion.

The firm is one of the few to have been boosted by l ockdown as people working from home have bolstered their laptops’ de fences with its products.

Analysts reckon t hat Avast will reveal that billings grew by 8 per cent in the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2019, thanks in no small part to this lockdown home-working boom.